Mad tales from the Raj
Subtitle: colonial psychiatry in South Asia, 1800-58
By: Waltraud Ernst.
Publisher: Anthem Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: London; New York, NY
Language: eng
Number of pages: 155
ISBN-13: 9781843318811; 9781843318682; 9781843318972
Subjects: Psychiatry -- India -- History -- 19th century; Psychiatric hospitals -- India -- History -- 19th century; British -- Mental health -- India -- History -- 19th century; Mentally ill -- India -- History -- 19th century; Mental health policy -- India -- History -- 19th century; Psychoanalysis and colonialism -- India -- History -- 19th century; Psychiatry -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century; Mental health policy -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century; India -- History -- British occupation, 1765-1947
Description: "Mad Tales from the Raj: Colonial Psychiatry in South Asia, 1800-58 is an authoritative assessment of western psychiatry within the context of British colonialism. This updated version provides a comprehensive study of official attitudes and practices in relation to both Indian and European patients during the dominance of the British East India Company. It includes a fully revised introduction that locates the work in relation to recent scholarly discourse in the field of history of colonial medicine. Based on government proceedings, medical case reports, contemporary publications, diaries and literary material, Mad Tales from the Raj provides a highly readable and illuminating account of contemporary psychiatric treatment and colonial policies. It is fascinating reading not only to students of colonial history, medical sociology and related disciplines, but to all those with a general interest in life in the colonies."--Publisher's description.
Notes: "First published in the UK by Routledge 1991"--T.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: Colonizing the mind; title: Madness and the politics of colonial rule; title: Ideological positions; title: Bureaucracy, corruption, and public opinion; title: The sick, the poor, and the mad; title: Administrative reforms and legal provision; title: The institutions; title: The role of institutionalization; title: Towards uniformity; title: Inside the institutions; title: The medical profession; title: The search for fortune and professional recognition; title: The medicalization of madness; title: The subordination of "native" medicine; title: Medicine and empire; title: The patients; title: "Highly irregular conduct" and "neglect of duty"; title: "Drawn very much from the same class"; title: A passage from India; title: The changing fortunes of asylum inmates; title: Being insane in British India; title: Medical theories and practices; title: Popular images and medical concepts; title: "Moral" therapy, "mental" illness, and "physical" derangement; title: Diagnostics and therapeutic practice; title: Aetiology and prognosis; title: Treatment; title: The question of "non-restraint"; title: Social discrimination, racial prejudice, and medical concepts; title: East is East, and West is best; title: Conclusion: "Mad dogs and Englishmen."